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"Do you have the key to the closet?" a voice asks, and Fen and I both stiffen in recognition

It’s Nevio again

"Yes," someone says He’s not the same person who came with Nevio before, but I can tell from this man’s accent that he is also from the Above "I think it’s this one It was in his pocket"

"Excellent," Nevio says

I hear the with the lock on the closet door Fen and I pull the robes in front of us and make ourselves as sh Are we about to be caught?

"This isn’t a perhs He see and the cage opening What is he doing?

"I know," he says "You only have to give h to speak Then we’ll have soet rid of him"

"Where will you take him?" the other man asks

"We can dump him in the ocean," Nevio says "That seems appropriate He seemed to have a fascination with its aboone very srees "But I e knehat he was doing down near the water"

"Don’t worry about it," the other man says "It’s as you said He was fascinated by the ocean He walked down by the shore all the tiages in the lock, and the closet door opens

I hold my breath Fen is quiet as can be and I send up a silent prayer to ht now

And then I stop praying and have to try not to screa pushed into the closet, someone slack and heavy and dead, and he lands in front of us, on us, and then the door swings shut, they lock it again, and the body is still on me, and I know exactly who it is I saw his face in that ht as well dump this in there as well, for now," Nevio says

And then the door opens again, and they throw so else in--another body, this one tiny, but just as lifeless as Ciro’s

It’s one of the temple bats

It’s so dark, and I scrabble for the closet door as soon as I hear Nevio and the other e roo the door open, and the bats all stare at me ide eyes

"I’m sorry," I say to them, to Ciro "I’m so sorry"

I should have told Ciro what Nevio was I should have trusted Ciro But I didn’t, and now he’s dead After everything he did to help us

He’s dead because of ht"

I shake ht?" I look at Ciro, his wild hair and his poor, dead face I put my hand on his chest, but I feel no rise and fall, no heartbeat I can’t see a wound, but the lack of life in hirotesque Is this hoas for my mother? Did Nevio hiet soain, pulling off his mask so he can speak to ot Below Did you hear Nevio? He doesn’t knohat Ciro was doing at the water Ciro must have already helped Bay and True leave on the transport Remember? Nevio didn’t see Bay and True He saw Ciro, alone We still have a chance You still have to speak"

Ciro is dead

The sirens are dead

Maire is dead; my mother is dead